Jack opened his eyes very wide, but he was so much surprised that he
did not say a word.

"One day, long, long ago," said the Queen, "I was discontented with my
own happy country. I wished to see the world, so I set forth with a
number of the one-foot-one fairies, and went down the wonderful river,
thinking to see the world.

"So we sailed down the river till we came to that town which you know
of; and there, in the very middle of the stream, stood a tower,--a
tall tower, built upon a rock.

"Fairies are afraid of nothing but of other fairies, and we did not
think this tower was fairy-work, so we left our ship and went up the
rock and into the tower, to see what it was like; but just as we had
descended into the dungeon keep, we heard the gurgling of water
overhead, and down came the tower. It was nothing but water enchanted
into the likeness of stone, and we all fell down with it into the very
bed of the river.

"Of course we were not drowned, but there we were obliged to lie, for
we have no power out of our own element; and the next day the
towns-people came down with a net and dragged the river, picked us all
out of the meshes, and made us slaves. The one-foot-one fairies got
away shortly; but from that day to this, in sorrow and distress, I
have had to serve my masters. Luckily, my crown had fallen off in the
water, so I was not known to be the Queen; but till you came, Jack, I
had almost forgotten that I had ever been happy and free, and I had
hardly any hope of getting away."

"How sorry your people must have been," said Jack, "when they found
you did not come home again."

"No," said the Queen: "they only went to sleep, and they will not wake
till to-morrow morning, when I pass in again. They will think I have
been absent for a day, and so will the apple-woman. You must not
undeceive them; if you do, they will be very angry."

"And who is the apple-woman?" inquired Jack; but the Queen blushed,
and pretended not to hear the question, so he repeated,--

"Queen, who is the apple-woman?"

"I've only had her for a very little while," said the Queen,
evasively.

"And how long do you think you have been a slave. Queen?" asked Jack.

"I don't know," said the Queen. "I have never been able to make up my
mind about that."

And now all the moons began to shine, and all the trees lighted
themselves up, for almost every leaf had a glowworm or a fire-fly on
it, and the water was full of fishes that had shining